MADRID, 13 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The number of air passengers in Spain increased by more than 33% last February to exceed 3 million, according to data from the Travel Transport statistics published this Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), which also highlights an increase of almost 76% in medium distance railways. High speed increased by 21.6%.

More than 400.9 million passengers used public transport in Spain last February, 21.5% more than in the same month of 2022. Urban transport increased by 23.6% in the annual rate and interurban 24.5% did. Within the interurban, the 33.2% increase in air transport stands out especially.

The variation rate of the number of public transport passengers in Spain for the month of February compared to January was 2.8%. The increase in 2022 in this same comparison was 12.9% and in 2021 10.8%, according to data from the statistical institute.

Urban transport was used by more than 247.5 million passengers in February, 23.6% more than in the same month in 2022.

Metro transport increased by 26.4% in the annual rate, with the Palma metro presenting the greatest increase, 88.7%, and the Bilbao metro the least, 16.3%.

Among the cities that have a metro, the greatest increase in bus transport was registered in Valencia (45.3%), and the least in Bilbao (13.5%).

Urban bus transport increased by 21.6% in February compared to the same month of the previous year. All the autonomous communities presented positive annual rates in bus transport.

The greatest increases occurred in the Canary Islands (39.9%), the Valencian Community (35.8%) and the Region of Murcia (27.5%). In turn, Catalonia (14.8%), Galicia (16.6%) and the Basque Country (17.7%) registered the smallest increases.

INE data show that more than 112.4 million passengers used interurban transport in February, which represents an increase of 24.5% compared to the same month in 2022.

By type of transport, air grew 33.2%, maritime 26.1%, rail 25%, and bus 23.7%, according to the INE.

Commuter transport rose 22.2% in bus transport and 22.6% in rail transport. For its part, medium distance grew by 27.2% in bus transport and 75.9% in rail.

And finally, long distance increased by 31.6% in bus transport and 18.6% in rail. Within the latter, High Speed ​​grew by 21.6%.

Finally, more than 40.9 million users used special and discretionary transport in February, which represents an increase of 3.6% in the annual rate.

The number of special transport passengers fell by 7.5% and exceeded 29.2 million users. Within this, school fees fell by 7.2% and labor fees by 8.7%. For its part, discretionary transport grew by 47.7% compared to the same month in 2022, with more than 11.7 million passengers.